brainpopfandomcom-20200223-history
Avian Flu/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is wearing a track suit. He is chasing a chicken around a high school track. Moby is timing him with a stopwatch and frowning. Tim stops running and stands next to Moby. He pants, out of breath. TIM: I don't see how chasing this chicken will make me better at soccer. Moby frowns, clicks the stopwatch, and hands Tim an envelope. MOBY: Beep. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what's this avian flu thing that's all over the news? From, Vincent. An image shows a rural area. A chicken walks onscreen, along with a pig with a thermometer in its mouth and an ice bag on its head. TIM: Avian influenza is a contagious disease that usually only affects birds and sometimes pigs. The chicken sneezes. TIM: It's commonly known as the bird flu. The chicken sneezes again, this time in the pig's face. The pig frowns. An image shows a bird on a tree in the woods. Graphics illustrate Tim's explanation as he continues. TIM: The virus that causes bird flu is carried around in the intestines of wild birds all over the world. It usually doesn't do them any harm. The bird chirps. TIM: But when domesticated birds like chickens, ducks, and turkeys catch the virus, it can be extremely deadly. MOBY: Beep. TIM: A domesticated animal is just one that humans have tamed as pets or livestock. Images show domesticated animals, including dogs, cats, sheep, horses, and a chicken. TIM: A bad case of the bird flu can kill close to one hundred percent of the domesticated animals it infects. An animation shows a chicken, a duck, and a turkey falling dead as a sad farmer looks on. MOBY: Beep. An image shows a map of the world. Highlighted areas illustrate Tim's explanation as he continues. TIM: In recent years, there have been outbreaks of bird flu in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. An outbreak is when a disease suddenly spreads across a population. In 2003 and 2004, an Asian outbreak caused over one hundred million domestic birds to be killed. Some of those birds died from the disease, and many more were culled. An image shows a farmer in a hazmat suit, killing chickens. TIM: That's when farmers kill their animals to prevent the disease from spreading. Maps and graphics accompany Tim's continued explanation. TIM: Starting in the mid-2000s, some people have caught the virus, mostly in places like Southeast Asia, China, and Egypt. Only a very small number of people have contracted avian flu, but unfortunately, many of the people who get the disease die from it. MOBY: Beep. An image shows a virus through a microscope. TIM: Right. Normally viruses stick with a certain kind of animal. Like, when your dog has a cold, the virus isn't going to make you sick, too. But sometimes a certain type, or strain, of bird flu virus can be really contagious. It can cross the species barrier. Animations show bird flu symptoms as Tim describes them. TIM: The human symptoms for the bird flu are just like for other flus: fever, body aches, sneezing, and a runny nose. An animation shows an inspector examining processed chickens on a conveyer belt. TIM: Health officials think that farmers and food processors probably got the virus from working without protection, like gloves and masks. And most infections have occurred in rural regions where people have free-roaming poultry flocks that can enter areas where children play. An image shows the bird flu virus moving from a chicken to Tim. TIM: So far, bird flu has only spread from animals to humans. An image shows the bird flu virus spreading from Tim to another person. TIM: But it's possible that the virus could change, or mutate, and gain the ability to spread from human to human. At that point, it could become a pandemic. A map illustrates the worldwide spread of the avian flu. TIM: That's when a sickness spreads around the world. An image shows a nurse tending sick patients. TIM: Like in 1918, a bird flu outbreak led to the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed as many as one hundred million people. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Some medications do work with avian flu, but right now there's no vaccine. That means there's no way to prevent it. Instead, a lot of countries, including the United States, have embargoed poultry from Southeast Asia. That means they won't import it. There have been outbreaks of avian flu in the U.S., but they've been pretty small. An image displays the emblem and website of the Centers for Disease Control. TIM: And the C.D.C., the Centers for Disease Control, handles those cases pretty aggressively. You can protect yourself from bird flu by following ordinary food safety rules. Images illustrate Tim's instructions. TIM: Always wash your hands after handling raw poultry and eggs, and make sure they're cooked well before you eat them. There's no reason to freak out about the bird flu. The last thing that will help is for everyone to panic. The sound of an approaching chicken is heard. TIM: Whoa! Tim begins to run. The chicken chases Tim down the track. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts